Tuesday, August 13, 2013

The Eviscerator: New SATYRICON Song, Second New TÝR Song, The Little Girl from "America’s Got Talent"


…And we’re back!

I decided to skip a blog post last week because I was a little busy again, especially on Wednesday evening – which is when I tend to do my posts – as I went to see Wintersun with Fleshgod Apocalypse, Arsis, and Starkill. After that, I planned to post on Friday, but I got lazy, so I then decided on Saturday, but I ended up going to see Black Sabbath instead. Surely you can understand the delay.

Both shows were fantastic, and I got to meet a few band members on Wednesday, including Francesco Paoli from Fleshgod Apocalypse whom I got a photo with (he is an extremely nice guy), Parker Jameson from Starkill whom I shook hands with (also a nice guy, though I wish I weren’t so timid that I may have been able to chat with him a bit more), and technically James Malone from Arsis whom I shyly waved at while walking away from the venue. He noticed, so it counts? I only regret that I hadn’t taken any photos of the show. Oh well.

Sabbath was also great. For having bought tickets the night before the event, the seats we got were pretty good. They played such favorites as “War Pigs”, “NIB”, “Paranoid”, “Iron Man”, and others, along with at least three songs from the new album, “God Is Dead?”, “End of the Beginning”, and “Age of Reason”. Iommi also teased the crowd with the first riff to “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” before cutting into “Paranoid” for the encore. That they didn’t play the former was upsetting, but the show still kicked ass.

Anyway, I decided to include another rant with this post while it might still be relevant, so here we go (the rant comes last, of course)!


New SATYRICON Song-“Our World, It Rumbles Tonight”

So Satyricon is a band I don’t think has been mentioned on this blog as of yet. They’re one I enjoy, especially Nemesis Divina and parts of Now, Diabolical. Their upcoming album, Satyricon, is their first full-length and general release in five years, with their most recent one being The Age of Nero. I admittedly didn’t even listen to The Age of Nero, as Satyricon was always considered by me to be “alright”. It took me quite a bit to actually get into their music, and even afterwards it was always just “alright”. Don’t get me wrong: Frost and Satyr are great musicians and Nemesis Divina is a wonderful album, but for the most part, I was only ever relatively content with their music.

This opinion didn’t really change with their new song. I knew that the band had a new album coming out, so I decided I’d give this song a listen, as I don’t dislike them, but it was nothing all too special to me. If anything, I found myself a little bored while listening to it, as nothing really stuck out to me about it. I didn’t find myself really drawn to it like I was Nemesis Divina or songs like “K.I.N.G.”. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything ground-breaking or too impressive, either.

As someone who’s somewhat of a fan of the band, to a point, I was probably only going to wait until the album was put up on YouTube after it was released in order to listen to it anyway, though now I won’t really be inclined to look it up immediately after word gets out that it’s uploaded. I’ll keep the album’s presence tucked in the back of my mind in case I get bored one day, though.

SATYRICON-Our World, It Rumbles Tonight



Second New TÝR Song-“Mare of My Night”

Yay!

Alright, so I won’t be spending much time on this song as I did a more extensive post about Tyr’s previously released song, “Blood of Heroes”, but it was worth posting about.

I’m pretty sure this song is about sex. About ninety-five percent sure.

Actually, more like ninety-nine point nine-nine percent sure. You can’t even say the lyrics include “innuendos”, no, they blatantly state and describe sexual acts. I suppose that was expected, though, to a degree, though I’m not entirely sure I expected an entire song to revolve around the intimate relationship of two of the characters that are a part of the story told throughout Valkyrja. Anyway, the song is great! Especially the vocals in the beginning, as for a moment I didn’t believe that Heri was the one singing. His voice is truly magnificent, especially in this song, and the music has a galloping feel to it throughout, fitting with the song’s description of a “mare”. The solo is also a definite highlight of the song, and it makes me eager to hear what others on the album will sound like.

If you like Týr or haven’t listened to them yet, I highly suggest you listen to their new song!

TÝR-Mare of My Night (link)


Rant Time: The Little Girl From America’s Got Talent

So I’ve already ranted about a few things here before, such as metal elitism, bands and “fashion”, Varg Vikernes, etc, though this rant is a little different. Kinda.

I’m sure by now we all know what little girl I’m talking about…a little, six-year-old girl who went on America’s Got Talent with her nine-year-old brother, and she apparently “shocked the world” when she performed her own song, utilizing some form of black(?) metal vocals, if you could even call them that, to sing it.

Firstly, I cannot believe I’m actually doing a whole rant for this. I can’t stand “talent” shows like America’s Got Talent, American Idol, The X-Factor, and whatever other ones there are like them. They’re a pathetic excuse for entertainment, and the entire principle of having “judges” on said shows bothers me. Three people should not be the voices of the masses when speaking on an entirely subjective portrayal of “talent”.

Secondly, the entire buzz this audition got really pisses me off. This is nothing mind-blowing. I’m not going to be an ass and spout on about how the girl was a terrible vocalist (she’s six – her voice isn’t even fully developed yet, though I can tell you her technique was most likely terrible, seeing as how she sounded more like she was just shouting as in a temper tantrum rather than using a decent technique which, admittedly, would have made her better [though the judges may have thought otherwise]), but everyone acted like this was something so new and never been done before. The same people who thought that this was so shocking and new are also probably the same people that say all metal is Satanic, which shows further that they have no idea what the hell they’re even talking about when they say so. Before I veer off into a sub-rant, let me get back on track with why else this pisses me off, with point number three.

The judges didn’t let the girl pass through to the next stage because they thought she was good (forget what Howie may have said, he called it “screamo” and is a moron anyway). They thought it was shocking, funny, and somehow ‘cute’. These people have no idea how to judge her style of vocals. They have no idea how to judge her technique. And note how the crowd was laughing from shock at what Aralyn, I believe her name was, did. The irony of it, though, is that, had this girl been throwing a tantrum in some aisle in a supermarket, nobody would have thought it was cute or funny, and she sounded like she was throwing a tantrum while on stage. She was not doing black metal shrieks or death metal growls. She was shouting like the six-year-old she is into the microphone.

Fourthly, why the hell is her brother never even mentioned? He was on stage, too, playing drums for his sister, yet it’s like he wasn’t even there. Sure, he wasn’t going anything really great, either, mostly just keeping the beat, but what do you expect? He’s nine. He’s not going to be doing 300 BPM blastbeats at nine-years-old. If you want to pass an act onto the next round, pass the entire act. Judge the entire act. Don’t pass an act just because you were too shocked by this talent that apparently has never been done before, according to your reactions. After all, be it a mediocre one, it’s a talent show. Not a shock-and-awe show.

Though, what bothers me more than the audition itself is how people reacted to it. I’m not talking about the shocked audience (probably about 0% of which were metal-heads) or anything like that. I’m talking about the fucking metal-heads that didn’t want anything to do with attending the taping of this embarrassment of a TV show. The metal-heads that don’t want anything to do with any of those kinds of TV shows.

Allow me to bring back this picture:


Also allow me to include a few tweets I sent out back in June on the matter (read from bottom to top):


Yes, I must stress this, good on the children for having the guts to go on a stage in front of the country and do something they and their parents knew was not generally accepted in our society. Good for them for doing that, and good for them for the music they like and wanting to pursue that. I applaud them for that. However, it’s known that nobody likes to tell children how it really is. Nobody was going to tell them they were bad, and nobody was going to tell them what the cold truth of it was: “this isn’t going to make mainstream money, so we don’t want you, go home.” These shows look for people who can make money because they go over well in the mainstream. This act was not going to win, and you could see that a mile away. Why their parents had any hopes that their children would progress on this shit show with their act is beyond me.

Don’t even get me started on the special-snowflake mentality the daughter had in one of the interviews, talking all about how she hates Justin Bieber and the like. I don’t care if you’re six, sixteen, twenty-six…you aren’t a special little flower just because you like metal, male or female. Listen to it, play it, whatever…you aren’t special.

Anyway, going through some comments on the video of this girl and her brother performing (bad idea, I know), the only thing that really got under my skin was someone saying this girl was “the next Oneilar” or something of the like.

FIRST OF ALL, Onielar is nowhere near finished her reign. She’s just getting started. It’s way too soon to say we have a “next Onielar” on the way.

Secondly, that’s honestly insulting to Onielar. I’ve already stated my opinion on the little girl’s vocals, – rather, as much of it as I’m willing to allow myself to express – so saying that the two sound the same is just a sheer insult from my point of view.

Thirdly, just no.

As for my follow-up tweets for the picture I tweeted and showed above of Bruce Dickinson’s opinion on shows like The X-Factor, it really annoys me how practically everyone in the metal community was so quick to agree with him, and yet so quick to completely forget about that just to say how “good” this little girl’s audition was. Maybe not good, but “cool”, I suppose. As I said, why do the rules suddenly not apply to the auditioning participant simply because they’re considered “one of our own”? Either you agree with Bruce or you don’t. Nobody is exempt from the rule. If you think so, you’re just making yourself a giant hypocrite.

These children only got through because they were children. Period.




UP-COMING BLOG TOPICS
-Wintersun
-Hate
-Dimmu Borgir
-"Irreligious" (a rant on obnoxious practitioners of their religions/lack thereof)
-My "Top 10" of last year (Coming soon)
-More reviews! (Listed below)
-Whatever else I feel like

Up-Coming Reviews
Sammath Naur-Self-Proclaimed Existence
Fleshgod Apocalypse-Labyrinth
Watain-The Wild Hunt
Others

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Here and Beyond: New Týr Song, Other New Things, Reunited Emperor


Welcome back to another installment of me voicing my own opinions on a variety of metal-related things.

This post was originally supposed to have happened sometime around Wednesday, but I've been busy and feeling under the weather since Saturday, so obviously that wasn't going to happen. So, in order to make up for the time it took to actually make this post, I decided to talk about a lot more than I would have normally. We've had a bunch of new songs unveiled and just general stuff announced since my last post on this here blog, so there's going to be quite a bit of material here (a long with some other stuff). You might as well grab a flagon of mead, sit back, and enjoy my ramblings for the next several minutes 'cause

here

we

go.

New TÝR Song-"Blood of Heroes"

So last Monday (June 22nd), Faroe Island folk metallers Týr released a new track from their upcoming album, Valkyrja. This one’s called “Blood of Heroes” and will be the first track of what is to be a concept album about a Viking warrior who left his woman to impress a Valkyrie on the battlefield so that she may take him to Valhalla.

I was extremely excited, as usual, when I heard that another band I adore was giving fans a sneak peek at what they’ve been up to, holed up in a studio for the past few months. This time, Týr got George Kollias to aid them as a guest drummer, making me all the more joyous and eager to hear what they’ve got in store for us this time. I’ve been a fan of Týr for a little while now, with such favorites of mine being “Valhalla”, “Hold the Heathen Hammer High”, and “The Hammer of Thor”, and Heri Joensen is undoubtedly one of my favorite clean vocalists in metal. I had high hopes for “Blood of Heroes”, and was eager to prove to myself that I won’t be disappointed with Valkyrja (not that I ever expected to be, of course).

And you know what?

“Blood of Heroes” is wonderful.

I literally could not stop listening to this song the day it was released. It was incredibly catchy, both musically and lyrically, which makes it very hard to not hit the replay button over and over again. Heri’s voice is just as charming, if not more, than it was on previous releases, and is the primary reason I began liking the band in the first place, as usual. The guitar solo is another highlight, and George Kollias’ drumming is as nice and clean as ever. The only negative thing I have to say about it is that it ends a bit…suddenly after the chorus. Of course, this can be overlooked, as you’ll probably just hear it all again immediately afterwards several times over, anyway. 

I can tell that this will be played live a lot, and that the crowd will have absolutely no problem with shouting that great chorus back at Heri.

Brief exchange between myself and @Chrisbizarre13 (I do not know why his icon wouldn't show up)

That’s basically what this song makes you feel while listening to it. If you say that the chorus to this song isn’t catchy and enjoyable, then you’re a little nuts.


TYR-Blood of Heroes

Click here to pre-order  Týr's Valkyrja (shirt, CD, vinyl, and rune pendant bundle available).



Other New Things

Quite a few things have been announced/released over the past week. So many that I decided to just lump them all into one post because I completely put-off making this post earlier this week as promised. So you get about twice/three-times as much of my opinion as you would usually receive! Lucky you!

New Fleshgod Apocalypse Song-“Minotaur (The Wrath of Poseidon)”

Alright, so I was hooked on this song from the very beginning. I won’t spend a whole lot of time discussing this song since I did a lengthier post on “Elegy”, but it is equally deserving of a spotlight. Maestro Ferrini opens up this track, though what I especially loved about this track was that, one, it featured a choir, and two, you can hear the guitars. The choir is not too overpowering, and it’s about damn time you got to hear what Tommaso and Cristiano are actually playing.

This is also a song I can hear being played live a lot (and I do really hope I get to hear it on Wednesday), as chanting along to “kill the king” and “gods kill for me” is simply irresistible.

Also, this track features some angry shouting in Italian like “Abyssal” did on Mafia and I think may have been included somewhere in Agony. A nice touch, despite not having any idea what’s being said at all.

FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE-Minotaur (The Wrath of Poseidon)

 Click here to pre-order Labyrinth (CD + shirt pre-orders available).


New Cattle Decapitation Video-“Your Disposal”

So I like Cattle, and I love this song, and the entire album, Monolith of Inhumanity, is incredible.

This video was alright. 

The concept of it was good, but the video didn’t really showcase much of that concept. I’d watched “Forced Gender Reassignment”, and yes, I was a bit grossed out, so I was a bit skeptical on watching this one. However, it had been allowed on YouTube, so it couldn’t have been that bad. If you weren’t a fan of the “Forced” video, or were too squeamish to even try to watch it, I can tell you that you really haven’t anything to fear with the new video. But honestly, the failed attempt at trying to tie a clear concept into the video should have been left out, and the video should have just portrayed the band playing. It was too choppy and jumpy, and the cuts with the actual “video” were too short to even understand what message the director was trying to get across without reading the description. Overall, it was just a bit too “artsy” for me. There are some videos I can watch over and over again and still love them every time.

This isn’t one of them.

CATTLE DECAPITATION-Your Disposal


New Devildriver Song-“The Appetite”

I’ve never been one to gush over Devildriver. I’ve seen them live, and I give them props – they’re a good live band. I like “Clouds Over California” and probably couldn’t name any other song of theirs unless I really thought about it. They’re one of those bands where, if someone had them on while I was around, I wouldn’t complain about it. I enjoy them, but I’m not sure I would consider myself a ‘fan’. I support them, I bought one of their shirts when I saw them with GWAR, but yeah, I’m not too crazy about them, for whatever reason.

With “The Appetite”, that doesn’t change. My opinion isn’t worsened or bettered with this track. It was good, it was enjoyable, I wouldn’t complain if someone put it on while I was around. To me, it’s the in the same category as the rest of their material. Nothing too special to me, but nothing I’ll complain about either.

This song is pretty catchy (if not a little repetitive), the guitar work is nice, the vocals are alright though I was never too big a fan of their vocals in the first place. They’re just one of those bands that I never really got into. I may not have a reason as to why, but that’s just how it is sometimes. They’re coming around with I think Trivium within the next few months, and I’ll probably go and see them again for the hell of it, but for the most part I’m sort of neutral towards them.

If you’re a Devildriver fan, you’ll like “The Appetite”. If you’re like me, well…you won’t mind it.

DEVILDRIVER-The Appetite

Click here for a variety of pre-order options for Winter Kills.


New Gorguts Song-“Colored Sands”

This is honestly the first Gorguts song I’ve ever heard, and I’ve had so many people go completely nuts over this band lately even though they’ve technically been around since ’89. Apparently, this is their first studio album in twelve years (beat that, Wintersun and Necrophagist!...but seriously, please don’t try), and their first release since reforming in ’08.

I’m sorry to say, but, from this song, I don’t understand the hype. Perhaps I’ll get around to going back and listening to the band’s other four full-length albums, but until then, I remain neutral and primarily unimpressed. It’s nothing new to my ears, and nothing too incredibly unique. A bit slow for my tastes at times, but perhaps that’s just how they play. It isn’t bad at all, that’s not what I’m trying to say. It just isn’t anything surprising or uniquely spectacular. They know how to play their instruments and they play them well, creating some good and overall-enjoyable death metal, that much is clear, but what am I missing that is so worth losing your minds over with this band?

I’d be thrilled if someone could cue me in on the secret.

GORGUTS-Colored Sands (link)

Go here for Gorguts pre-orders (am I done with all these links yet?).


In other news:

-A new Overkill album due in March! This will be their seventeenth album. That’s insane. I have so much respect for these guys. My brother saw them a few months ago and Bobby was apparently sick with some nasty cold or something, and he still sang as well then as on a regular night (so sayeth the brother). Plus, his voice overall has aged like the finest of wines. For 33 years now, this band has been putting out great thrash records, and they just keep going. They’re crazy, and you can’t not love them, or you probably at least find it hard to not respect these guys. The Electric Age was awesome, so I’m looking forward to March, and seeing these guys with Kreator and Warbringer this Halloween.

-Behemoth's Nergal says The Satanist will require another six months before it’s released. What an eager six months of waiting that’ll be…I can’t wait until we get to see some previews for this. I’m especially curious as to how Nergal will sound in the studio for the first time since ’09, what with recovering from leukemia and all. He’s progressively sounded better live since then, from what I can tell in fan-shot videos and whatnot, so I definitely have some high, high hopes for this album.



-Obituary launches a fundraising campaign for their next album. Honestly? I think this is a great idea for fans to show support for bands. I know that Abiotic has used a fundraising campaign when their van broke down, Battlecross did so they could attend Mayhem Fest, and I believe Hate set up something for donations to Mortifer’s family to cover funeral costs etc. after he passed away a few months ago. It’s just an awesome way for fans to show support, and sometimes bands even offer special ‘prizes’ as thank-yous to those who help. Battlecross definitely had some awesome ‘rewards’ for those who donated to their being able to attend Mayhem. One of Obituary’s thank-yous is, for donating 100-149 dollars, is an autographed poster, drumstick and vinyl, plus a physical and digital copy of the album, a shirt, hat, sticker, death metal coozie, and guitar pick. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty fair, and pretty badass. So it isn’t exactly a “hand-out” like some people claim. You aren’t getting nothing in return, and you wouldn’t be anyway. You’d be helping a great band put out another album! What about your “keep the metal alive” mentality there, huh?

With 43 days left to go, Obituary has already passed their $10,000 goal by about $1,500. The minimum pledge is $1, and you can go *here* if you’d still like to donate regardless. All ‘prizes’ are listed along the right, with all info regarding…everything summarized on the page.

-And Motorhead’s set at Wacken was cut short due to Lemmy’s health. A shame this happened, and I’m sure we’re all hoping that Lemmy gets well soon! Better that they cut the set short rather than try to have him over-exert himself. 

-And, of course, Watain announced a North American headlining tour in support of The Wild Hunt (and yes, I did drop $130 on their limited edition box set for the album, though I will unfortunately not be able to attend their show in Philly and am extremely disappointed because of that). If you’re in/near any of these cities, I highly recommend you catch Watain on this tour, and that you check out their upcoming album, The Wild Hunt.


-Click here to listen to "All That May Bleed" and here to listen to "The Child Must Die".
-If you plan on seeing Watain, get a feel for their live performance by checking out Opus Diaboli here.
-Click here for a better view of tour dates, posted on Watain's official Facebook page.



Reunited EMPEROR

Yep! Apparently might black metallers Emperor are going to reunite for next year's Wacken Open Air Festival, conveniently the festival's 25th anniversary. According to Ihsahn, the band will not be playing any new material during their headlining set at the famous festival, and truthfully, nobody knows what's to happen afterwards.

Ihsahn never said the band is staying together after the festival, though I've already seen some people online get excited about tours and new material. From what I've read, it might just be a one-off show. I don't think people should be jumping the gun so far as to be expecting world tours and whatnot. That part of the deal was never even hinted at. They're playing next year at Wacken, and then who knows what's to happen?

All I can say is that I hope this gets professionally recorded, because I'd love to see this performance and I envy anyone who plans on attending the festival next year.

EMPEROR-Curse You All Men! (Live Inferno Festival)



Well, that's it for this post, I suppose. As a bonus for this post having been a bit later than I would have originally liked, here's a picture of my Endless Damnation vinyl I got recently.

Disregard my ugly carpet.
Yes, it's one of the fifty signed by Nergal! It now sits at the helm of my ever-expanding collection of Polish death metal CDs, which are all laid out beside the rest of my CD collection. My Watain vinyl will be set right next to this as soon as I get it once the album is released, as Nergal is the primary reason I even decided to look up Watain in the first place. An immaculate duo.


UP-COMING BLOG TOPICS
-Wintersun
-Hate
-Dimmu Borgir
-That little girl on America's Got Talent
-"Irreligious" (a rant on obnoxious practitioners of their religions/lack thereof)
-My "Top 10" of last year
-Whatever else I feel like
 
 
UPDATED LIST OF UP-COMING SHOWS (for me, at least)
-WINTERSUN w/ Fleshgod Apocalypse, Arsis, and Starkill, 8/7/13 (going for everyone but mostly Wintersun and Fleshgod)
-KAMELOT w/ Delain and Eklipse, 9/5/13 (going for Kamelot)
-VADER w/ Vital Remains and Sacrificial Slaughter, 9/18/13 (going for Vader – late birthday gift to myself…happy fuckin’ birthday to me!! also at a venue where my brother says, from experience, you're practically guaranteed to meet the bands...if I meet Peter, I shit you not, I will probably cry.)
OVERKILL w/ Kreator and Warbringer, 10/31/13 (going mostly for Kreator and Overkill, both of which are swapping headlining throughout the tour – Overkill is headlining while in Philly)
-MORBID ANGEL w/ TBA?, 11/13/13 (as of right now, going for Morbid Angel - first band I’ll see more than once!)
-LAMB OF GOD w/ Killswitch Engage, Testament, and Huntress, 11/24/13 (maybe; going for LoG and Testament)
-TRIVIUM w/ Devildriver, After the Burial, and Sylosis, 9/30/13 (maybe; for Devildriver)

BEHEMOTH-Here and Beyond

Friday, July 26, 2013

Atrocity "Okkult" Review


Atrocity
Okkult

Okay…how did I first find this band…?

I think it was about a month or two ago I was surfing around on YouTube (may have been watching Hate videos, who knows…actually, I think that was it) when I saw an interesting-looking video in the suggestions. Now, I don’t often randomly click on songs off in YouTube’s suggestions as I’ve had more bad experiences with doing so than good, and usually when I listen to Hate, I want to listen to Hate and nothing else, but this was some random evening where I threw caution to the wind and said “why the hell not?”

About three minutes after the enjoyable theatrical intro, I had fallen immediately in love with Atrocity’s “Pandæmonium” from their new album, Okkult. Prior to “Pandæmonium”, I had never even heard of this band, so I had absolutely no idea what to expect. Apparently, though, as I found out, Atrocity can’t seem to settle on a single genre. As it turns out, they started out as a grindcore band under the name of “Instigator”, then became a tech death band with Hallucinations and Todessehnsucht in the early 90’s with their new name, only to move on through a myriad of styles including thrash, folk, industrial, and even doing full albums of 80’s pop covers (strange, right?). On Okkult, they took a shot at symphonic death metal and did pretty well for themselves.

Upon hearing the term “symphonic death metal”, someone might think of bands such as Septicflesh, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and Ex Deo. While very far from wrong in thinking of such acts, their mind will probably not jump right to Atrocity’s Okkult, even if they’re familiar with the album. It definitely has its very symphonic moments, most notably at the beginning of “Pandæmonium” and throughout “March of the Undying”, though this album tends to be a bit half-and-half. Half of the songs, such as “Death by Metal”, are completely devoid of any symphonic elements, which make some of them a little less enjoyable than their symphonic counterparts. It’s a bit of a disappointment, as Atrocity does a very good job at including symphony in the songs that have it. It gives a little bit of extra, and somewhat necessary, bombastic and fuller feeling to the music. There are, however, some songs that are perfectly fine without the epic symphonies.

Songs like “Haunted by Demons” and “Beyond Perpetual Ice” have no need for the background symphony featured on other songs, the latter of which is one of the few that focuses more on attempting to establish a common-day death metal feel to it, while the former is one of the more anthemic tunes. The more “deathy” songs aren’t anything too groundbreaking, but are decent on their own. As a whole, the band may have featured too many different shifts stylistically, what with having over-the-top symphonies, simple anthems designed for concerts, enjoyable death metal, and more symphonies, all on one album. It makes it seem as though the band couldn’t settle on having one idea for the entire album, making it a bit less cohesive than I personally favor. The songs are good, and the album is good, but all the different aspects of it make it feel as though it’s more of a ‘best of’ album or something.

Nothing about these songs is really bad, except for the few times where it sounds Alexander Krull is trying maybe just a little too hard on the vocals. He sounded tense on a few occasions, such as at the beginning of “When Empires Fall to Dust”, and the vocals would have been a bit better if he had just relaxed and redone them, though this can be easily overlooked, as they improve as the song goes on. The guitar work, especially in the solos, is also a highlight, especially in “Haunted by Demons” and “Murder Blood Assassination”, though it wouldn’t have hurt anyone if the bass had been a bit louder (welcome to death metal?), though it does have its moments in the spotlight. The drumming is never overpowering or underwhelming, though those who enjoy more death metal-orientated drums should maybe start with “Masaya”.

Overall, I’d give the album about an 8.4/10 (or an 84%), as it was rather enjoyable despite it somewhat lacking theme. I’d recommend it to anyone who is new to death metal, especially of the symphonic kind, and enjoys albums with plenty of variety.

Noteworthy Tracks:
Track One: “Pandæmonium”
Track Four: “Haunted by Demons”
Track Ten: “When Empires Fall to Dust”



*If you enjoyed Okkult, also check out Hallucinations and Todessehnsucht, though you should probably steer clear of most of the rest of Atrocity's discography unless you like goth/industrial metal or 80's pop covers.